Buckland, William (1784-1856)

Correspondence by William Buckland to a number of individuals. Such as: A member of the Cadell family (per. c.1740-1934), coal and ironmasters, engineers and geologists (acc.91800, no.1) ; Phillips, William (1773-1828), printer and geologist (acc. 56483, no. 6, no.27); Lardner, Dionysius (1793-1859), writer on science and public lecturer (acc.65341, no.5); Sowerby, George Brettingham, the first (1788-1854), conchologist and natural history dealer (acc. 68133, no.8); Hawes, Sir Benjamin (1797-1862), politician (acc.67694, no.29)

William Buckland (1784-1856), geologist and dean of Westminster, studied classics and theology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was elected a fellow of the College in 1808. Buckland tutored in classics, to pursue his interest in natural history which led to his appointment as reader in mineralogy in 1813; and geology in 1818. In his inaugural lecture, Vindiciae geologicae where he reassured his audience that the facts of geology were consonant with the record of the Bible. In particular, "Diluvium" gravels on hills around Oxford was cited as convincing evidence for the "universal deluge". Buckland was a popular lecturer at the university and achieved increasing fame within his lifetime. His 1821 expedition to Kirkdale Cavern, unearthed fossils of exotic animals such as hyenas and rhinoceros which Buckland suggested was "ante-diluvial" and supported his hypothesis by using modern evidence collected from captive hyenas. In 1825 he was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford and was also a founder member of the Zoological Society of London. He published forty papers and books, including the treatise, Gelogy and Mineralogy (1836), which he abandoned his former belief in the universal effects of the Noachian deluge, and was highly influential. In 1845, he was made dean of Westminster, and sanctioned a number of sanitary reforms to the abbey and the Westminster school. He suffered a severe mental breakdown in 1850 and was later placed in The Retreat, John Bush's mental asylum at Clapham, where he died in 1856.